Thursday, June 08, 2006

175 miles later...

...and I'm back home! I couldn't believe the amount of tires strewn on the I-10. There was a tire like every half-mile! And pretty much any time you looked at the side you could see chunks and bits of the tires. But for all the blow outs... I've never seen one happen in front of me.

I went to a town that's 30 minutes away and checked out a WalMart copy-cat type of store, because I heard that they carried Thimbleberries! And yes indeedy, they do. I only got two, the blue and green on the bottom left side. I also got the sheep print, quilting fabric and ABCs cream at the store. A total of 7 yards for 20.58. :)

The reds are for a quilt a lady asked me to do for a baby that's due in October. I bought quite a few so she can select as desired. :) On the far right is almost 8 yards of white on white fabric that I got from JoAnn's. Can never have too much background! The cream on the left has the alphabet jumble around on it - very appropriate for a baby.

I had a horrible time at JoAnn's - due to overlapping emails and extra promotions, I had a total of 6 printed coupons, each with a different barcode. Usually I have no problems using them, sometimes I have to re-enter the store. A few times I got lucky and had them just give me individual fabric tickets all at once, saving me time from having to go in line each and every time. Well today some rude lady said that nope, you're only allowed to use one coupon a day, period. *gulp* But...but...but... JoAnn's is like 80 miles away! They've always let me do this before. I noticed that this lady also had two of the cutters practice measuring out a piece of fabric, pin the measurement spot, and then she measured it herself to make sure that they were EXACT. Not picky are we...

So in the end... I only got to use three coupons... and here's how:
- Coupon 1 - I used myself, on the 8 yards of WOW.
- Coupon 2 - I found a lady in the quilting section, asked her if she was buying any fabric... said nope, so I asked her if I could have her stand-in for me and get the cream shown in the middle of the picture. Since there was no line, she didn't have a problem with that. :) I also gave her one of my coupons since she didn't have one with her.
- Coupon 3 - I bought a pre-cut roll of 10 yards of batting and just presented the coupon to the cashier... not the drill sergeant lady at the cutting table.

For the red fabrics on the right side of the picture... I had to sucker up and pay full price. I did end up getting less than what I planned. All the other fabric was bought at the other store. I'm pretty disappointed about the whole thing... why email me so many coupons if I am not going to be able to use them all? I have aboslutely no JoAnn's or Hancock's locally - I'm stuck with WalMart and 2 quilt stores. JoAnn is going to be losing money from me at this rate.

Enough doom and gloom! :D I also went to a Organic food co-op, searching for bulk wheat for bread making, but alas, very disappointed in the store. I got lost trying to get away from the store. I wanted to go on Broadway, but somehow I got confused and had to keep driving until I saw another familiar street name - Speedway. So down Speedway I go... and I find the Bernina Sewing Center. Yay! :) At least I know where it is now and hopefully later this summer I'll get a chance to take my machine in for a cleaning.

After that was Trader Joe's. Oh how I wished we had one local too! Hrmm. JoAnn's or Trader Joe's? Ugh, I can't decide. :P But I got some Cod fish, wheat flour and I indulged in a quart of Goat Milk. Mmm! Although I'm sad, they used to be $2.39 a quart, and now they're $2.99.

And Costco. Whew... I spent the most money there, easily. More fish, toilet paper, paper towels (especially for when I put on/take off my contacts), girly stuff, contact solution, hearing aid batteries. Chicken, sausage, ground beef. Cheese, butter, cereal. Oh, let's not forget the 4 cases of water. They are SOOOOOOOO worth it in the Arizona heat. I don't take the time to be properly hydrated through the faucet. Bottles make it easier. 4 bottles a day and I'll have my 64oz. :)

So tomorrow then, I'll start quilting the Around the World. I'm planning to use light yellow thread. I still haven't decided what kind of pattern I should quilt yet. I figured once I sit down at the machine, it'll come to me. :)

Leah

7 comments:

Quilts And Pieces said...

Oh my gosh you made me tired just reading all you got done! But at least you had a fairly good fabric day! We can only use one coupon here also. Sometimes I stop at various joAnn's if I have a lot of stuff I need, but I have a ton of them between where I work and home - of course I have a long commute. go have fun with your quilting now!!!....

Fiona said...

Who would have thought buying fabric could be so stressful? Glad you were able to use at least some of your coupons.

Unknown said...

I have had the same problem at JoAnn's. It's a crapshoot everytime I go there. If I get someone who likes to follow the rules, I am out of luck. I have felt that I should write the company. It really makes no sense to use only one coupon a day. Especially when JoAnn's is an 80 mile trip for me too!!!

Unknown said...

Leah ... i think I have your green print in several other color ways. Let me know if you would like a pic/ scraps.

Shellie said...

It sounds like you had a productive shopping day if not all that much fun at JoAnn's. The women at stores I used to shop at were usually pretty nice and flexible. My best JoAnn's story was from a few years ago for the after Thanksgiving Day sale. The manager decided they didn't have enough selection of the cheap flannels for the 99 cent sale so all of their flannels were on sale. I made two trips because of the 10 year limit and because I just couldn't pass up on such a great deal, but I have a feeling they would have just let me have it anyway.

I've been lurking here for awhile and never had a chance to post before but I love you blog. The his and her's quilt blocks look wonderful. Thanks for the tip on the Janome. I haven't actually had a chance to check any of them out yet since either I'm on my way somewhere else when I pass a store or the shop is closed so I can only peep through the windows. I'll probably start my quest next week though since I don't have any classes to worry about.

Shellie said...

Oops. In the last comment, that would be a 10 YARD limit not 10 year limit. Don't know what I was thinking when I typed that!

Shelina said...

I have a Joann's rant on my blog too. You should read it - because they have changed the rules. You can't use the coupons on sale fabric, only regular priced ones. Used to be you would get the 40% off the regular price, and ignore the sale, but now you can't do that.